Preview: RSL-Tauro FC - Aug. 21, 2012

SANDY, Utah (Monday, Aug. 20, 2012) – Real Salt Lake returns to CONCACAF Champions League play on Tuesday, Aug. 21, when it will host Panamanian champions Tauro FC at Rio Tinto Stadium in the second of four Group Stage matches. The match will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel, CONCACAF.com and ESPN700 AM starting at 8:00 p.m. MT.

RSL lost its first CCL match, starting slowly and giving up an early goal before losing DF Nat Borchers to a second half red card to fall 1-0 at Costa Rican champions C.S. Herediano on July 31. Tuesday’s game is almost a must-win for RSL, which needs to make up three points on Herediano in its three remaining Group Stage game to have any shot of winning Group 2 and advancing to the tournament’s Knockout Stage.

Tuesday’s game will be Tauro’s first in the 2012-2013 CCL. The most decorated club side in Panamanian history, Tauro qualified for this edition of the tournament by winning the Panamanian Clausura Final over league counterparts Chepo on May 22.

This is Tauro’s fourth time in the CCL. The club participated in three of the first four editions of the tournament, missing out only on the 2009-10 competition. Tauro has never advanced past the Group Stage of the CCL, getting bounced from the Group Stage in the 2008-2009 and 2011-2012 tournaments and losing in the old Preliminary Round in the 2010-2011 competition.

Tauro FC – which has won a record 11 Panamanian titles – is led by Panamanian manager Juan Carlos Cubilla and features of a number of Panamanian internationals, including recent national team call-ups Leonel Parrish, Marcos Sanchez, Ricardo Amor and Jean McLean.

Real Salt Lake has a quick turnaround after Tuesday’s match, continuing its three-game in six-day stretch by traveling to Philadelphia to take on the Union in a league match at PPL Park on Friday, Aug. 24. The Claret-and-Cobalt returns to CCL play on Sept. 18, when it’ll once again face Tauro FC, this time at the Estadio Rommel Fernandez in Panama City for its third of four Group 2 matches.

Following is the link to the Adobe PDF version of the Game Guide(media notes) in advance of Tuesday’s contest between Real Salt Lake and Tauro FC. If you have any problems obtaining the document, would prefer to receive it as an attachment, or are seeking more information on the match, please contact Media Services Manager Sam Stejskal in the RSL Communications Department via email at sstejskal@realsaltlake.com.